President Obama has driven spending and deficits to historic levels in just two years since taking office. Not content to stop there, his budget for the next 10 years keeps spending at record levels and piles up unprecedented amounts of debt in the process. To partially offset his massive overspending, …
As Members of Congress limp out of Washington to face their constituents, it’s worth reviewing their accomplishments—or lack thereof. The most basic function of Congress is to manage the public purse. The most basic step in managing finances—whether of a family, a business, a state, or a nation—is to pass …
In the 1980s and 1990s, Chicken Littles warned that Japan was buying up America. The biggest symbol that our country couldn’t keep up with Japan’s managed-trade policies was the 1989 purchase of New York’s Rockefeller Center by Mitsubishi. Even though the sky didn’t fall, protectionist Chicken Littles are at it …
A new messaging strategy, based on public polling results from top Democratic pollsters, suggests that congressional lawmakers should wave the white flag when discussing Obamacare in their election campaigns. The PowerPoint presentation, released in a conference call organized by Families USA, encouraged officials to “keep claims small and credible: don’t …
Now that the congressional money tree has bloomed again, this time in the form of new stimulus money for the states, we are faced with the question of whether the federal government will ever learn self-control. Federal government spending has exploded over the last two years, causing unsustainable debt that …
Progress is often a matter of higher, faster, further—profits are higher, computer chips are faster, cars run further on a gallon of gas. In Washington, progress is often measured by more and more—spending more than ever and being more cynical than ever. The liberal leadership in Congress has set a …
Almost as soon as the 2010 Social Security trustees report comes out today, various groups will claim that the program is fiscally healthy because its trust fund won’t run out until sometime in the 2030s. Sadly, the reality is very different. The trust fund contains promises to pay—not real money. …
It’s difficult to forget the drama—including riots, fires, and even deaths—that unfolded during Greece’s recent fiscal crisis. But what would happen if bad budget policy led to a financial crisis in the United States? A recent report from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) points out the economic casualties of a …
Liberals are desperate to bully or chide the rest of the country into accepting massive new taxes to support the recent federal spending surge. Many opponents who resisted the spending on the grounds that it increased the budget deficit are now being called deficit chickens because they oppose the tax …
